The Eternal City
by Cmdr's Monkey
Summary: SG-1 is exploring a set of ruins when Jackson makes a discovery and Anubis sends his kull warriors. TF.N 50 Sentence challenge.


**Title:** The Eternal City

**Genre**: Sci-fi, Adventure

**Timeframe**: Sometime during the Anubis crisis

**Characters: **SG-1 and Dr. Lee

**Summary:** SG-1 is exploring a set of ruins when Jackson makes a discovery and Anubis sends his kull warriors.

**Author Notes: **This is in response to the 50 Sentences challenge. I did not think I could get through all 50 words and actually make a story out of it. I was rather surprised at how well the prompts fit in with the Stargate universe. I'm hoping the next set will be just as flexible and allow me to conclude this tale.

* * *

**The Eternal City**

The ancient hieroglyphs on the sandstone **wall** stood out from the rest, so different from the ones that Daniel had once thought they had only been the writing of the long-dead Egyptians but was actually a variation of Goa'uld, yet they looked familiar, almost Roman and it took the archaeologist a moment to realize that he was staring at the script of the Ancients. He had always known that there was a link between the ancient Romans and the Ancients of the past, but he had no proof or evidence other than that the two cultures spoke a similar tongue, so when he saw the ancient script **bridging** the gap between the two written languages, he was excited.

"Jack!" Daniel called to his teammate, gesturing hurriedly with one hand while he didn't take his eyes off of the architecture of the ruins (or let his mind stray from who the **architects** were) and quickly spotting the familiar columns and arches that were common to Rome's ancient buildings. How had he not seen it before when they first approached the ruins, _Because you were not expecting something __**different**__._

Colonel O'Neill came over to see what Daniel had discovered and saw nothing but ruins and writings that did not interest him one bit and wondered why the archaeologist thought he would be interested at all, their interests were no where near **alike**. "Please tell me you have found something that will help us **catch** Anubis, Daniel."

"Nevermind catching him, I have something better," the younger man answered and gestured at the writings on the wall with a piece of charcoal, "From what I've been able to translate thus far, this tells a **tale** about the gods..."

"Yes, but is it **telling** us how to catch a present one?" interrupted the Colonel impatiently.

Daniel gave him a perturbed look before continuing with an abridged version of what he learned, "The Ancients taught the Romans some of their secrets and according to this, there is a **hidden** stash of their secrets secreted away somewhere in a place they call 'the city of the eternals'."

"And its just _waiting_ in this place, which I hope this wall says where, to be **claimed** by us, right?" asked Jack hopefully.

Daniel's shoulders dropped and gave a frustrated glare at the hieroglyphs, "It did once, but where the coordinates were, its **blank** now by whomever chiseled them out."

"They never make it easy to find their stuff," muttered Jack as he turned his back to the **empty** ruins and started walking off to where the others were. Unperturbed by his friend's mood, Daniel returned his **full** attention to the script to see if he could find where this city of the ancients was located.

* * *

Meanwhile, **far **from the ruins where the ancient transporter rings rested undisturbed for several millennium, they suddenly came to life as half a dozen rings erupted from the ground and a stream of light filled the center. The light soon faded into nothingness and in its place were two black, armored warriors that appeared to be unarmed but menacingly dangerous all the same; and once the rings had disappeared back into the earth, these warriors stepped **beyond** the perimeter for the ruins with a purpose most deadly.

* * *

"Seriously, I never expected you to be one for **healing**," commented Doctor Lee as he packed away a few vital pieces of equipment while he chatted away with Teal'c about World of Warcraft, delighted that someone else also played the game. "I mean, in fact, I could have sworn you would be the **steady** type and choose the warrior class instead of the shaman, Teal'c."

"Shamans are also warriors in addition to their ability to **aid** their allies, Doctor Lee," stated the Jaffa. "Like my people, the shaman has a similar since of honor and **kinship**." Teal'c's stoic expression did not **falter** while he kept watch on their surroundings with the other soldiers and discussed the merits of playing the shaman class with Doctor Lee.

Suddenly an energy blast struck one of the soldiers in the chest, right over the **heart**, and Teal'c ducked from several more as he brought his staff around to return fire. Turning to see who was shooting at them, the blood rushed from Lee's face as he recognized Anubis' kull warriors emerging from the forest with their arms extended and firing at them, terror gripping his **soul** and freezing him in place.

"To tell the **truth**," Lee squeaked as Teal'c dragged him to the ground and let loose several shots, "I wouldn't mind a shaman right now!"

A new sense of **hope** filled the scientist when he heard Colonel O'Niell shouting orders to the marines that had been with them and yelling at those who weren't soldiers to get back to the Stargate. Having **faith** in the capabilities and uncanny luck of SG-1, Doctor Lee scrambled for his equipment and started running back to the Stargate, bumping into Daniel along the way.

"Doctor Jackson," breathed Lee as he dropped his equipment behind the wall Daniel had been translating, "you do understand the **depth** of our situation and that we should be running for our lives instead of translating a wall, right?"

An energy blast further emphasized Lee's point after it impacted against the wall between the two men, blackening and charring the ancient script much to Daniel's dismay, and he sarcastically replied, "**Lovely**, just when I was about to find where the city was too!"

"Maybe we can find out later," Lee suggested and tugged on the archaeologist's sleeve to get him going, "after we get through the Stargate while the kulls are **distracted**?"

Daniel nodded in agreement and took stock of the situation **bearing** down all around them. It was **troublesome** enough to run for the DHD while enemy fire was flying everywhere, worse when he had scientists tagging along who did not get out of their labs often, much less be caught in the middle of a fire fight. "Go," taking a deep breath, Daniel reached around the wall with his handgun and provided covering fire as he continued to yell, "and don't forget to **weave**, Bill!"

"Weave?" the scientist gulped and when Doctor Jackson fired again, Lee lept into the **fray**, zig-zagging his way through the ruins and praying that he would not get hit as he made his escape.

As Lee made for the Stargate, his **friends** struggled to bring down the super soldiers with anything that they had. The twin **brothers** from SG-6 tossed a pair of grenades each at the abominations and ducked behind the stone rubble they had taken refuge behind. The grenades exploded together and staggered the **comrade** of the other kull warrior but otherwise seemed to have little affect in stopping the creature.

"If we get out of this bro," began one of the brothers, "I'm gonna make my wife one happy **spouse**!"

"What?" the other gave him an incredulous look at the poor timing to have such a conversation, "You're not actually considering giving in to her demand for a **child** are you?"

"Am I **ever**," the first one answered back. "I will probably **never** leave our bedroom after this."

"Cut the chatter you two!" scorned Colonel O'Neill as he let loose a salvo of bullets from his P-90 assault rifle. The weapon suddenly jammed and the veteran officer glared at the thing for its untimely **betrayal** before ducking for cover. "Sam, we're gonna need something with more **potency** than bullets and grenades!"

"Sorry, sir," answered back Samantha Carter from where she was pinned behind a wall, "we have a **limited** number of the Kull Disruptors and I didn't think we would need one here."

"Great," cursed the Colonel as he dropped his P-90 in favor of his handgun, but before he could rise up to take a couple shots, Teal'c next to him aimed for the keystone that **anchored** the archway the two kull warriors were passing through. The archway collapsed on top of the two warriors, bringing down also one of the walls that the archway supported—effectively crushing them underneath tons of stone and weathered marble—and leaving Jack staring in astonishment, "Nice, let's just hope they don't **harbor** any ill feelings afterward, eh Teal'c?"

"As a warrior I would be adrift with disappointment if they did not, Colonel O'Neill," replied the dark skinned Jaffa and Jack just gave him a strange look for his statement.

"Well, I say we go give them our warmest of **greetings** and make sure they are dead," Jack quickly put words to action and stood up from behind his cover and cautiously made his way over to the crushed kull warriors. One of the warrior's arm twitched and Jack instinctively put a couple grounds into the soldier's helmet. "Hello and **goodbye** to you too, buddy!"

The **fleeting** victory over the kull warriors was short lived however, as they began to move under the rubble, proving once more that they were virtually unstoppable. "Daniel is just gonna have to find his **Eternal** City back on Earth, everyone move it!" cried Jack as he scrambled to get away from the rising kulls.


End file.
